Clueless and Seeking advice on TT purchase

Do yourself a favor and give Kevin Barrett a call: KAB Electroacoustics

Psychic: What experience do you have with Kevin. Do you use one of his tables? Which one?

I remain,

I have the tonearm fluid damper, modded Groovemaster cartridge and the outboard power supply for the 1200. I drove to NJ last October to visit my little sister and along took the creature and visited Kevin in Plainfield. He installed the power supply and later we listened to music in his living room. Kevin has gone through the trouble of doing these mods because he truly believes the 1200 is the last great affordable TT out there.

The few of us who have fully modded 1200s are convinced it would take $5K to surpass the sound, if at all. We're not exaggerating. Mine is floating on a Dennensen air suspension platform and the music is coming out very realistic, especially acoustic music.

I bought a used JA Michell Gyrodec SE and a new Origin Live Silver arm for about $2K, and took the Aurum Beta off the AR Turntable that I replaced, and my JJ 243 preamp has a very nice tube phono amp in it. I'm a really, really happy camper now! The only downside is now that I know what the rig is capable of, I want a better cartridge, mebbe a Koetsu! ;) Won't happen for a while though :( You could get a Gyro with the cheapest RB250 you can find and then upgrade the weight and wiring and do it all for less than I did.

I also hear wonderful things about the Scout but I haven't heard them in person. The Linn LP12 is a good old classic and sounds wonderful. Overpriced new but you can often find them for a steal on the used market.

Good luck and have fun! :)

Thanks guys after your help I've finally been able to make up my mind and went with the Bang and Olufsen 4002.

I think it stands for "Bang" for the buck! IMHO it compares with anything under 10k.

Never could have done it without you. My ABBA collection never sounded so good! I theorize it's the Scandinavian electronics. What synergy!

Sincerely
I remain,